


The chemistry teacher and receptionist

by FunnyWorldWeLiveIn



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Johnlock - Freeform, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-02-27 09:31:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13245396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FunnyWorldWeLiveIn/pseuds/FunnyWorldWeLiveIn
Summary: Sherlock is a chemistry teacher who normally gets into arguments with his fellow staff members. When a new office worker, Mr Watson, comes in to investigate what's really happening in the science department will things change or stay the same?





	1. Introduction of Watterford Academy

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, this is my first ever fanfic! Hope you enjoy!

The science department at Watterford Academy was not the like the other departments. To start with, it was the newest block in the school, the old one had to be knocked down due to an experiment gone wrong by one of the teachers (thankfully, the students had gone home). Secondly, the science department was home to one of the most interesting teachers in the school, Mr Holmes. Mr Holmes teaches chemistry to the years 9 and above. He is not allowed to teach younger years because his methods are so absurd that the school doesn’t want to get sued for health and safety reasons. Most students (and sometimes teachers) question how Mr Holmes had managed to land a job teaching, but then they stopped questioning when they saw that Mr Holmes’ students got some of the highest grades in the school. Upon entering year 9, students hoped that they would have Mr Holmes teaching them instead of Mr Anderson, another chemistry teacher and Mr Holmes’ sworn enemy. Mr Holmes does not agree with Mr Anderson’s teaching methods, and Mr Anderson does not agree with Mr Holmes’.

Thankfully, they are not the only two science teachers at Watterford Academy. Miss Hooper teaches biology alongside Mr Stamford. Unlike the chemistry teaches, they get along well, if you’re lucky you can sit beside them in the staff room and hear the interesting topics of their conversations. The topic of the best dinner the school has provided them in all their years of working there lasted two hours (the final result being the chicken nuggets and chips. “You can’t go wrong with chips!” Miss Hooper argued). 

The physics teacher’s relatively boring. The only interesting thing Miss Donovon does is back Mr Anderson in arguments against Mr Holmes. This only gives Mr Holmes more fuel to insult their relationship as much as he can, he even makes jokes about them in lessons. The students love to hear about his latest argument and how he won it. Their arguments sometimes get so bad that the office needs to be called and sort it out. To the Deputy Headmaster Greg Lestrade and Headmaster Mycroft Holmes, the science department is only the most interesting because it’s often the one they both find themselves sorting out the most problems in. Of course Mr Anderson or Miss Donovan are never happy that it is Mr Holmes’ older brother who tells them all off when the students catch a word or two of their arguments and go to Deputy Headmaster Lestrade to rant instead.

Staff in other departments are often gossiping about the science department, Mr Holmes is known for his ability to read anyone’s life story by just looking at them and it doesn’t help that he is called the “hottest teacher”. Many female staff members are often caught off guard by his looks and end up being insulted as he reads their horrible life stories out loud in a crowded corridor full of drama-hungry students. New staff members are warned about how they come across to Mr Holmes, they do not want to scare away anyone because their best science teacher is also their best asshole. 

Mr Watson is the newest addition the the ever growing staff team. He works in the office at the front of the school, handels the teachers paperwork and organises anything that they need doing. Of course he is warned about Mr Holmes and the rest of the science department in his acceptance email, but he does not think too much of it. Mr Watson has worked in various schools during his career, and has worked with various assholes and departments where the staff members do not get along. What Mr Watson hasn’t done is over-estimate how much of a challenge this new school will be for him. 

*

The staff room was the same it has been for the past 10 years Mr Holmes has worked at Watterford. Miss Hooper was eating her salad (bought from the schools cafeteria, cheese and chicken caesar salad), talking to Mr Stamford, who was eating his pasta from home, about the latest progression that NASA has made towards putting a man on Mars. Mr Anderson and Miss Donovan were not present at the table and instead were sat down on the sofa, drinking coffee (Mr Holmes deduced that they were both on their 4th cup of the day). 

“Sherlock!” Miss Hooper called him from the table position to the right of the centre of the room.

“Yes, Miss Hooper?” Mr Holmes responded, not seeing the use of first names on school property, he believed that such in-formalities were best left to social gatherings outside of the school’s premises, not like he would attend any gatherings with these people anyway.  
“There’s a new staff member starting at the office today.” Miss Hooper said, with a slight maddening glint in her eye.

“How interesting, I hope they’re not irritating like the last one, or come with an annoying demanding personality like the one before” Mr Holmes had something against the office workers at the school. He believed that their purpose was to serve the actual hard workers. Sitting behind the desk all day organising what sheets of paper to print was not Mr Holmes’ definition of respectful, even though most office workers demand respect.

“Look, Sherlock, just because most office workers don’t blow things up for a living, it doesn’t make them boring or less respectful compared to you.” Mr Holmes sighed at the mention of his first name, he really hated it being used in front of Anderson and Donovan.

“I don’t “blow things up” as you so gracefully put it. I demonstrate the chemical reactions between two or more substances to my students so they can learn.” Mr Holmes hated how underappreciated his works was by the rest of the science block.

“Tell that to the last science department.” Snarked Anderson from the sofa to his left, gaining a giggle from Donovan.

And then all of a sudden, the staff room in the science department changed. The atmosphere changed alongside the amount of people in the room. The door opened to reveal someone who Mr Holmes had never seen before accompanied by his older brother, Mycroft. He had a jumper on (not formal enough to be a teacher), with plain black trousers (sitting down job) and stood up tall (showing confidence but was breathing fast, he was nervous but didn't want to show it). He was the new office worker.

Mycroft was the first to speak and break the silence that settled in the room. "This is the new office member, John Watson. He'll be organising any resources you need or school trips you want planning. Please, be willing to take advantage of his superb set of skills, he has worked for many different schools in his past."

This new member of staff, John Watson, glanced over at Mr Holmes, almost as if he could tell that he was the person he should watch out for. Mr Holmes responded with an identical look. as if to say "you're going to regret coming here".


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mr Watson and Mr Holmes plans to impressive one another does not work out as well as they thought it would. Notes at the end of the chapter

To say that Mr Holmes enjoyed getting to school on time was an understatement, in fact, he loved getting to school early. Watching the car park slowly fill up with cars while drinking is second cup of coffee for the day was relaxing. He preferred not to be like Donovan, who gets into school 3 minutes earlier than the students and has little time to set up her first class. The best thing about being early meant that Mr Holmes was alone. There’s nothing quite like being alone in a corridor or a room that is usually filled to the brim with people. 

Today Mr Holmes wasn’t alone. It came as a shock to him, it was like he was programmed to start hearing noise as soon as Mrs Jakobs, the art teacher, normally comes in 10 minutes after he does. Today someone was in before Mr Holmes himself. that someone was none other than Mr Watson.

“Ah, good morning. Mr Holmes, is it?” Mr Watson’s voice was rather croaky, like he’d been up until 1 am the previous night screaming out the lyrics in an attempt to do some karaoke. Though Mr Holmes knew that this wasn’t the case, Mr Watson would’ve had much larger bags than the ones currently there on his face (probably due to waking up so early). 

“Yes, nice to meet you again, Mr Watson” Mr Holmes was determined to avoid any small talk. He disliked it normally and being this early in the morning he disliked it more.

“Oh, John is just fine. At the other schools I’ve worked at everyone prefers to call the receptionists by their first names.” 

“Well, I’m sure that you have already been told that this school is not like others that you’ve worked at”

“Yes, and I’ve been told that you’re the reason for that, Mr Holmes. I hope that your chemistry lessons prove to be as promising as they sound, I’m doing a lesson tour today to see what I’m up against.” Mr Watson spoke, almost with a slight ounce of teasing in his voice. People have been telling him about the Mr Holmes’ lessons. Students normally make his lessons sound better than they actually are to make their friends who are taught by Anderson jealous. Mr Holmes felt like he needed to make his lesson meet the standards that Mr Watson is expecting, actually, he wants to prove Mr Watson wrong. When he walks into Mr Holmes’ classroom he is going to be blown away.

Mr Holmes walked away without another word, leaving Mr Watson behind. Mr Holmes did not feel the same as he normally did when he turned on his heels to stride away, he felt like staying. He instantly shrugged off the feeling, blaming it on the cold outside making his head numb, making him think weirdly. But Mr Holmes was not the only one who was affected by the cold, Mr Watson had just been exposed to the freezing temperatures of Mr Holmes’ heart for the first time, and it intrigued him.

The first class off the day was always the most exciting. The second class was when students began to get hungry, they thought more about what they would buy from the cafeteria more than they thought about chemistry. This was the same for the fourth class, which was before lunch. The third and fifth class were normally the chilled out ones, Mr Holmes normally had year 11s or 10s in those slots, so they were familiar with him and gossiped to him about other teachers. 

For Mr Watson, the only thing that he had to concern himself with in the time slots of classes was making sure that he had given teachers what they asked for by the time they needed it. Though today he was concerning himself with them because he wanted to view Mr Holmes’ class. He checked his class schedule on his computer and decided to go when he had year 10s fourth period. 

Mr Holmes knew that if Mr Watson was going to come into one of his classes then he would look for the one that would be the most interesting. He only had three classes out of the five lesson slots, one for each year, period 1,2 and 4. He saw Mr Watson was not doing any work when he saw him in the morning, so would most probably be working period 1. The teachers are meant to send Mr Watson sheets that they need printing out in colour (as the school is cheap and only has black and white colour printers in its departments) by the morning, so he would deliver the sheets during period two and three. Leaving period 4 as the best time for Mr Watson to come, meaning that he had a bunch of year 10s plus an receptionist in his lesson. He focused on his first and second period before paying any thought into how he was going to impress Mr Watson, he had third period to think of a plan. 

As the first class of the day was always the most exciting, Mr Holmes decided to do an experiment. The year 11s had their GCSE’s coming up at the end of the year and needed a break from their constant whittling and worrying. Mr Holmes demonstrated a particle that the students did in year 10, making them write down notes on it so it counted as revision. 

The second period was the year 9’s. It was their first lesson with Mr Holmes, so he decided to bore the death out of them. He liked to make the new students think that he is nothing like anything the rest of the students said he was, making them less excited for his next lesson where he would blow something up and make them all jump. He set the task of reading through pages 7-9 and answering questions 1-12, setting question 7 as the minimum amount of work allowed. Most of the students kept looking at him, expecting him to do something exciting, but nothing happened. They all left the lesson looking disappointed, as if they wanted Anderson to walk in yelling at Mr Holmes over his recent experiment.

 

Mr Holmes decided to attend the science staff room at break time. Miss Hooper and Mr Stamford were now positioned on the sofa, Miss Donovan and Mr Anderson were stationed by the coffee machine. Miss Hooper smiled at Mr Holmes as he entered the room and used her hand to wave him over. He sat down on the sofa on the opposite side of the coffee table.

“So, I saw you talking to the new receptionist this morning. Looks like you and Mrs Jakobs are no longer the only early birds of Watterford.” Mr Stamford, who Mr Holmes went to university with, said. Miss Hooper looked at Mr Holmes like she was expecting him to complain about something, it almost looked as if she had her eyes ready to roll. 

“Yes, we had a nice conversation. He told me that he’s going to be stopping in some of the lessons today. He’s coming to mine 4th period.” Mr Holmes watched as Miss Hooper’s faced dropped, then lit up with amazement that he had managed to make another adult spend more time with him.

“You? He wants to see your class? Why would he want to see you?” Donovan seemed to want to join the conversation now.

“Because I actually do something interesting. Like right now, my conversation is clearly more interesting than the one that you’re having with Mr Anderson.” Mr Holmes retorted. Making Mr Anderson’s face turn into a deep scowl. Donovan turned back to him in attempt to apologize and revive their conversation. 

Mr Holmes heard the door open behind him, Miss Hooper looked up and smiled gently, almost as if she was expecting this visitor. Mr Holmes moved his position on the sofa to catch a glimpse of who it was.

“Molly, I have the diagrams of the human body you wanted for fourth period.” Mr Watson said from behind his binder of paperwork. He walked over and set the binder down on the coffee table and searched through the paperwork to find the sheets. Mr Holmes saw sheets from other lessons with post-it-notes on them with “Mr Johnstone, Geography, period four” and “Miss Campbell, maths, fourth period” written on them. Mr Watson was delivering the paperwork now, during break (the time he had off) instead of during period 3 and 4. He’s getting it all done now so that he would have time to go and see Mr Holmes’ lesson. 

“Thank you, John, I’m so glad that you got them here early. The last person who had your job delivered them half an hour after I needed them” Mrs Hooper thanked, sending a look to Mr Holmes as if to say “Don’t mention the last receptionist”. Instead of mentioning the last receptionist, Mr Holmes rolled his eyes.

“Don’t mention it” Mr Watson said, taking his binder, standing up and looking to Mr Holmes. The look lasted no longer than two seconds, Miss Hooper who was sorting through the paper and Mr Stamford who was looking at the diagrams wouldn’t have noticed it, along with Miss Donovan and Mr Anderson who had lost interest in what was happening a couple of minutes ago. The looked was accompanied with a nod, the kind of nod that says “hello, nice to see you again” without actually saying it. Mr Holmes had seen other people giving each other this nod before, and knew that he would need to return it if he didn’t want to look rude. 

Mr Watson then made way out of the room, with his binder that was now 30 sheets thinner but still looked as thick as it did before he gave Miss Hooper the sheets. The door closed behind him, as soon as the door clicked shut Miss Hooper turned to him. 

“I’ve never seen you nod at someone before.” She said. Mr Holmes resumed his position on the sofa, facing Miss Hooper, trying to study what she wanted to get out of this conversation. Instead of answering her comment, Mr Holmes stood up and left the room.

Mr Watson went and delivered the papers to Miss Campbell. He wanted to avoid walking through the corridors when the students moved to their next lesson so he took some time to get the papers out of his binder in Miss Campbell’s room and struck up a conversation with her. He asked about the topic that the worksheets were for. She explained how the students wanted to do their own maths posters for the open evening and how she’ll be disappointed when most of the students go down to watch Mr Holmes’ practicals instead spending time at all of the subjects. Mr Watson laughed at the idea of Mr Holmes having his classroom packed with kids and parents, causing controlled explosions that would make the whole room jump. 

As the students began to fill up the room, Mr Watson left, his attempt to avoid the students walking in corridors was successful. He delivered the rest of his paperwork and was back at the front of the school by half an hour to period 4. He was about to walk into his office when he saw Deputy Head Lestrade stood outside of his door.

“Ah, John, there you are. Where have you been?” Lestrade asked, looking like it was unexpected for someone with his job to actually be doing the work.

“I’ve been out delivering the papers for today, just finished”

“Good, one of our other receptionists is off today and I was wondering if you could lend Clara a hand with sorting out the financials? It’s month end and we really need to get this finished, I saw that you did it at one school. It will only take an hour.” Mr Watson wanted to say no, he wanted to go and watch Mr Holmes’ class instead of doing work. But this was his job, and he couldn’t let his boss down on his second day.

“Sure I’ll help Clara.” He said, and went to sit with Clara in the accounting office.

The work was hard. Clara had showed him what to do and he had gotten the hang of it, but it was hard because as the minutes went on, he was missing out on viewing Mr Holmes’ class. He heard the bell for fourth period ring, and he sighed, knowing that Mr Holmes was starting his lesson. This gave him some fuel to work harder, and he managed to complete the work within and hour, like Lestrade had said, giving him 30 minutes to go and watch the remainder of Mr Holmes’ class.

Mr Holmes could hear the students coming and leaving for their next class down the corridor, the walls were the opposite of soundproof.. He knew that somewhere in the chaos of the footsteps was Mr Watson. The class filled in and took their seats, there was no sign of Mr Watson. Mr Holmes knew that he couldn’t wait for Mr Watson to come, so he started his class. He went through the information about the practical that he was doing and began to set the equipment up. He dragged it out as much as he could, making the students draw a diagram of the apparatus. He had to give in and do the practical eventually. So he put on his safety glasses and set up the safety screen.

“Now you need to add in the compound slowly, if not the reaction will happen too fast”  
He said as he began to add in the compound slowly from the bottle. The class went quiet and Mr Holmes was concentration so hard that he couldn’t hear the footsteps approaching through the walls. When the door opened it caught Mr Holmes off guard, resulting in him almost dropping the bottle full of compound into the solution. Instead of the bottle falling, the compound poured out, causing a large spark and bang. That was all that Mr Holmes could see before he jump backwards and tripped over a stool, sending him onto the floor.

“Shit, Sherlock!” The students laughed as Miss Hooper bursts into the room. Teachers swearing at Mr Holmes was nothing new to them but seeing Mr Holmes, who was normally as graceful as a swan, fall over was something new.

“I’m alright, I’m alright.” Mr Holmes says as he slowly stands up and faces Miss Hooper. He smiles, turns back to the students and says “And that is why you wear safety goggles and use a protection screen. Anyway, Miss Hooper, what brings you here to my lesson?” 

“I asked her to show me where your classroom was.” Came a voice from outside of the door, Mr Watson walked in, and smiled at the sight before him. Mr Holmes was covered in what looks like ash from head to toe. The students were all laughing. Mr Holmes did a sigh of relief when the bell signalling lunch went off.

“All right, clear off, we got a mess to clear up” Miss Hooper announced, the students cleared the room, leaving the three staff members alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I saw that I got 35 hits on my last chapter and wanted to write more because I actually love writing this.


	3. Chapter three

The first thing that Mr Holmes did was wash his take off of his safety goggles and apron, the second thing that he did was almost shove Mr Watson out of his classroom, claiming that “It is dangerous for you to be in here”. He then slammed the door closed and faced back to the mess he needed to clear up.

“And here I was, thinking that you might’ve been kind to one receptionist.” Miss Hooper said from behind him. Mr Holmes would’ve been nicer to Mr Watson, but he was embarrassed. He was not happy, in the slightest, that a receptionist had seen him fall over and have a whole class of year 10s laugh at him.

“You thought wrong,” he retorted. It was always easier for Mr Holmes to tell people that they were wrong about assuming parts of his personality than explaining to them how he really felt. Why would he people the pleasure of knowing what he thought about? 

The two of them cleared up the mess in silence. Mr Holmes focused on collecting up the broken glass and other bits of objects which had moved positions during the experiment. Miss Hooper washed down the screen and cleaned any of the equipment that wasn’t shattered into a million pieces. Miss Hooper left him half way through lunch so that she could eat her school-bought salad, Mr Holmes adjusted his stool back to its original position and sat down. He heard footsteps coming down the corridor again. A short pang of shock coursed through him as the footsteps came past his door and down the corridor, the pace did not change when it passed, whoever it was wasn’t thinking of him. He felt almost as if he was wanting those footsteps to belong to someone who was coming to visit him, as if he wanted someone’s company, as if he wanted them to belong to Mr Watson.

Other footsteps came and went, Mr Holmes’ thoughts did the same thing. He couldn’t seem to concentrate on anything he put his mind to, so he decided to retire to his mind palace. He knew that it was dangerous to do in school, you were never sure of who could sneak into your classroom, or who could be talking to you about something important. The science department knew that he was practically unreachable when he was in this state of mind, and sadly, Mr Watson did not. 

“Hey, Mr Holmes, I’m sorry for that mess. Actually, am I allowed to be in here? Is it still dangerous?” Mr Watson might as well of been talking to a brick wall. He didn’t see any of Mr Holmes’ physical features change when he spoke, thinking that he must be a really good actor who’s ignoring him or that he’s sleeping.

“Sherlock, are you awake?” He talked a little bit louder, almost certain that Mr Holmes would have woken up if he had been asleep. So he must be ignoring him. It was plausible, he did just nearly make his head blow off, and with Mr Holmes’ cold reputation he wouldn’t put it past him. 

He decided to walk out, slightly disappointed that he didn’t get to have a good conversation with Mr Holmes. He returned back to the front of the school and took a seat at his desk. He had done all of his work for the day so he emailed Greg to ask if he had anything that needs doing. To his luck, Greg had asked him to sort out the staff duty schedule for the year, the receptionist who was off was meant to do it and Clara already has enough work.

He spent the next hour organising and allocating areas of the school to teachers at break and lunch in a two week time table. He must admit, he was placing the teachers who he has come to dislike or find annoying as far away from the front office as he can and outside so that they would get cold in the winter. It was petty, but he enjoyed doing it. He put Miss Campbell from maths close to the office on a Wednesday break and lunch as he had enjoyed her company in the past. 

Mr Holmes received the duty schedule on his desk the next morning. He searched for his name, he loved being on duty, it gave him a reason to get away from the science block and Anderson. Though, he was not happy to discover that he was close to the front of the school. Students (year 10 and above) and teachers were allowed out of the school and into the town at lunch times. He would need to stand by the door and talk to the returning teachers about whatever boring topic they decided to torture him with. Still, it was better than any conversation in which Anderson or Donovan was involved in.

The office was opposite the doors, he would need to be near his brother and the lovely office workers. He had most probably been rude to everyone who sits in that office, so he would need to be friendly to the teachers who were coming back from lunch if he wanted to be entertained. He, sadly, wasn’t allowed to escape from the boring aspects of duty and retreat into his mind palace, he would miss any younger students who tried to escape through the lunch doors to hang out with their older friends.

Miss Campbell was nearby too, she was the one from maths who always complained because he had better things to show off at the open evenings compared to her. It’s not his fault that students are more interested in watching explosions than Pythagoras’ theorem of bullshit (Mr Holmes actually likes Pythagoras’ theories, but he still doesn’t see how they’re more entertaining than a lovely controlled experiment where things blow up). He should probably attempt to apologize to her as he would be spending every Thursday break and lunch close by.

Mr Watson also had to assign himself a duty position. He choose to do morning duties by the main doors every morning. He was the first person there and had nothing better to do. But that meant that he would need to greet everyone and most probably engage in a few conversations about something school related, he had to have his fingers in a lot of subject pies to keep up with his job. The drama department need him quite often, not that he minds, as do the geography (for school trips, mostly) and science departments.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this one is rather short, I’ll update again on Saturday!


	4. chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sherlock doesn't show up for work one day and John gets worried.

The next morning went smoothly for Mr Watson. He got to work and put his bag down by his desk before going to stand by the door. He had to wait around five minutes for the first person to come through the door. Of course that person was Mr Holmes. Mr Holmes was sipping his coffee when he walked in, purposely so he didn’t have to make conversation so early in the morning, so Mr Watson just nodded, gaining a nod back. This procedure happened everyday weekday for the following month. Mr Holmes had something stopping him from making conversation for the first week and a half, after that they just nodded at each other and carried on with their days. Mr Watson always had a brief greeting with Mrs Jakobs then minutes later anyway. 

He could sense that Mr Holmes was not a social person, even though he was a teacher. It wasn’t that he minded social interaction, he just preferred not to early in the morning. Mr Watson couldn’t blame him, he felt the same before his first cup of coffee. He figured that’s the way Mr Holmes is; punctual. So it, naturally, came as a surprise to Mr Watson when he did not see Mr Holmes coming through the doors of Watterford Academy. Instead of Mr Holmes, Mr Watson was greeted by Headmaster Holmes. 

“Good morning, Mr Watson, thank you again for volunteering for this duty. It’s hard to find people who want to be here so early.” He smiled. The smile look a little a bit forced, like the smile that Mr Watson had seen the headmaster give to nearly everyone he’d came into contact with. 

Now, Mr Holmes’ brother was standing in front of Mr Watson. If Mr Holmes had taken any steps to progress the relationship between the two by trying to befriend Mr Watson then he would’ve asked where Mr Holmes was, but no progressions had been made. Mr Watson couldn’t just ask where he was, he hardly knew the guy, but that didn’t stop him from wondering. He knew that he was best to avoid the attention that the headmaster would place on him if he showed any interest in his brother so he decided to not ask. 

“Well, I thought it would be easier for me to do it. It’ll also make me avoid making another teacher angry because they need to wake up 20 minutes earlier.” Mr Watson’s smile was real compared to the one that the headmaster had sent his way. 

But the question of “Where’s Sherlock Holmes?” still remains. Mr Watson imagined the most bizarre scenarios which would match his personality, his favourite being that he had managed to scare his next door neighbour with an explosion and had gotten himself into trouble with the police. The reality was much more dire. Mr Holmes had caught a cold. Working with snotty teenagers all day did sometimes take its toll. Mr Holmes hated to take the day off of work, but after reassurance from Mycroft that someone will take his lessons he accepted his defeat. 

To Mr Holmes’ distress, this meant a day without Mr Watson. Mr Holmes hated to admit it but he had a feeling that he wanted to impress Mr Watson. It was like whenever they were in the same room he would try and get his attention. He wanted them to conversate more but he didn’t want to show everyone else that he had taken interest in someone. 

The need to impress was also present in Mr Watson’s head. Unlike Mr Holmes, Mr Watson has to impress a variety of people in order to keep his job, but he needs to impress to impress these people, he wants to impress Mr Holmes. Mr Holmes is unlike anyone who Mr Watson has ever met before, his mysterious presence made Mr Watson want to learn more about him, almost as it the secrecy drew him in. 

Mr Watson has had his share of lovers in the past. He’s never been able to settle down with anyone because he always picks the wrong people. The secrecy and mystery draws him in but then he ends up being played by the secrets and the mystery only turns out to be an affair. He also moved around a lot for work. He found it hard to stay in one place for more than a few years because he would get bored. He would walk the same corridors everyday and memorise every turn just to get bored and move away. It was a bad habit of his.

It only took one day for Mr Holmes to recover enough to return to working. Sleeping for the whole day was something that he apparently needed judging by the amount of energy he now had. He got to the school earlier than normal and earlier than Mr Watson so he decided to wait for him. He hated to admit it but he wanted Mr Watson’s attention. It didn’t matter if it was in a room of a thousand people or a room with just the two of them, Mr Watson would be the only one who he would pay attention to.

Mr Watson arrived approximately ten minutes later. He sat his bag down by his desk then walked out in front of the doors and stood there waiting. Mr Holmes was making an effort not to be seen, he wanted to surprise Mr Watson. After five minutes Mr Watson checked his watch then checked the car park to see if any taxis had dropped off a mysterious tall figure. Mr Watson saw nothing and sighed, Mr Holmes saw his chance.

“Looking for me?” He stepped into where Mr Watson could see him. Mr Watson sighed even louder than he had a moment before, he looked at Mr Holmes, pursed his lips then shrugged.

“No, just getting a bit lonely.” He lied, of course he was looking for Mr Holmes. He wouldn’t be looking for the company of any teacher if he was feeling lonely, they all say hello then go to set up their first classes or get their forms ready.

“Ah, well Mrs Jakobs is here now. I don’t doubt that she’ll make better company than me,” Mr Holmes saw Mrs Jakobs coming towards the doors, if he was still here talking to Mr Watson when she came in then she’d try and get into a conversation with both of them. Given that Mr Holmes had a lot more energy than normal, he still didn’t want to conversate with Mrs Jakobs.

“No, well, I know that she won't explode something when I walk into a room,” Mr Watson teased, knowing that Mr Holmes was still embarrassed after that.

“That was one time! Anyway, things don’t explode themselves, I need to be off and set up a practical for first period. See you later.” Mr Holmes honestly couldn’t stand this small talk for any longer, definitely since Mr Jakobs was fast approaching.

“Hope it all goes well this time, I’ll see you later.” And with that it was just Mr Watson alone again, waiting to greet the next face he sees come through the door.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Halloween party is here, but Sherlock isn't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how dancing works.

Halloween was fast approaching, and that meant one thing: Halloween parties. The school hosted an annual halloween party for both staff and student, there’s normally a buffet and some drinks, but nothing too special about it. The dullness of the party was something that repelled Mr Holmes from attending. He must admit, he went once, but that was only to help Miss Hooper as her date left her and she needed someone to be the bacon to her egg.

Mr Holmes was going this year, he was going because Mr Watson was going. He had no idea what Mr Watson was dressing up as, more importantly, he had no idea what he was going as. Miss Hooper suggested that he could go as a vampire (as it “suits his cheekbones”) and Mr Holmes decided to go with her idea as he left it too late to think of anything better. 

The Halloween party was going to be a bore. Teachers were only asked to attend to watch over the students and make sure that they weren’t drinking alcohol. Though, as they were there for two hours they decided to embarrass the students by dancing in a circle and sometimes getting on the stage and singing. Mr Holmes knew that one of the history teachers was in a band and would sometimes play.

Mr Watson was excited for the Halloween party, even though there will be students there. Mr Watson has a secret passion for dancing, and rarely gets to exhibit it in front of others, he hopes that this party will give him an excuse to show off his dance moves and impress Mr Holmes. He didn’t like to imagine that the only reason why he was excited for the party was because Mr Holmes was going to be there, but it was the only logical reason he could come up with. No one knew or needed to know that Mr Holmes was the only reason, or part of the reason, why he was going anyway.

Soon enough, the party rolled around. Mr Holmes applied his fake blood, Miss Hooper adjusted her fairy wings and Mr Watson brushed his wig. There was music coming from the assembly hall, songs currently in the charts were being played at the loudest volume the speakers could handle. Mr Holmes and Mr Watson knew this was going to be a good night, but for completely different reasons.

Mr Watson arrived first, it was almost a habit to be early, plus, he wanted to see everyone’s costume before they entered the hall. He took his normal position by the door and waited. Mr Holmes was nowhere near ready by the time Mr Watson had walked through the school doors. It was a party, and Mr Holmes was going to go to all means to avoid getting there, even though he knew that he needed to if he wanted Miss Hooper to talk to him ever again. As much as he likes to say that he wants to be late, he can’t avoid the truth that he’s making his costume look perfect. 

The hall was bustling with people and music, the songs didn’t seem to stop. The students were standing in their groups, some in the centre of the room, dancing to the music, and some by the food table, grabbing what they could before more people came. Mr Watson was standing close to the food table, every now and then picking at the chicken nuggets which were laid out. There were a few teachers coming up to get plates every so often, but no one really stayed around long enough for a proper conversation. He keep checking the door, as if he was waiting for someone, and felt disappointed when he saw that no one interesting had walked in. 

After a while, Miss Hooper came in. She didn’t look happy; like something had annoyed her. Mr Watson knew it was probably a date that cancelled or Mr Holmes. She spotted him and immediately walked over.

“Oh John, thank god you’re here, I was worried that no one interesting would be here since Sherlock’s late.” She huffed, Mr Watson still found it weird hearing Mr Holmes being referred to as ‘Sherlock’, but he went with it anyway.

“Well, that’s Sherlock for you.” He replied, “Want to dance? Just to pass the time.” He seriously needed to dance, if Mr Holmes was coming then he needed to have the excuse of being tired to be able to talk to him. 

Miss Hooper didn’t reply, and instead walked over to the centre of the hall. She being bopping to the music, looking awkward, Mr Watson began to join in. Suddenly, the pair started to be more comfortable with the music and danced among the students for a good half an hour.

Mr Holmes arrived late, as promised. He walked in through the doors and observed his surroundings. Various staff members and students were hanging around the food table, looking like they were waiting for more food to be brought out. There were some students requesting songs at the DJ booth and Mrs Hem’s band getting ready to perform on the stage. All of the music was directed one towards one place - the dance floor. The dance floor which currently held host to a dance circle, centred by Miss Hooper and Mr Watson. The pair looked like they had been dancing for a while now, sweat was dripping down both of their foreheads. Mr Holmes decided to stay clear of the dance floor, he knew that trying to dance would be a catastrophe. Instead, he stationed himself by the corner of the room. His costume was scary and the corner was rather dark, people would just assume that he was a prop if he stayed still long enough.

Mr Watson started to get tired, he hated to admit it, but it was because of how old he was. Miss Hooper was beginning to feel the same, so they took a break by the food table. 

“Any sign of Sherlock yet?” Mr Watson asked. Miss Hooper shook her head, she wasn’t watching the door during their dancing session either. 

“No, but I have just spotted a strange shape hovering in the corner over there. I’m almost certain that there isn’t any other 6 foot tall vampires in the school.” She said, Mr Watson followed her line of sight until his eyes landed on the mysterious figure in the corner. She was right, it did look a lot like Mr Holmes, that or a prop that suddenly appeared. He decided to go and investigate. Miss Hooper spotted one of her teacher friends on the dance floor and went to speak to them instead. 

Mr Watson made his way to the corner gradually, he didn’t want to seem too eager to see Mr Holmes, though, there was not many places to hide in an open hall. He decided to just go and see him when he got bored of talking to anyone who was close by. He grabbed two glasses of punch from the table next to the food and made his way over. Mr Holmes looked up to him when he was about ten feet away, looking surprised to see him there.

“Nice to see that you were bothered to show up, want some punch?” He said, offering the other man one of his glasses.

“Thank you, and for the record, I was forced to come by Molly. I don’t see why though, she looks very satisfied chatting to her friends.” Mr Holmes said.

“Maybe she just wanted you to be here so you could enjoy yourself, and it doesn’t look like you are, want to dance?” Mr Watson asked, he knew that it was likely for him to be rejected as Mr Holmes scowled at the mention of dancing.

“Fine, I’ll do it. But I’m not being at the centre of the circle.”


End file.
